


Shining

by Fyre



Series: A Little Kindness [20]
Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Slow Show - mia_ugly
Genre: Alternative Perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23445037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyre/pseuds/Fyre
Summary: He took another, deeper breath. No point lollygagging in the hall. He’d told all the people he needed to except one and all he had to do was walk into that hall and find the right moment to strong-arm the DJ into helping him as he performed the prestige, whipping away the cloth, pulling his heart out of a hat to everyone’s awe and astonishment.
Relationships: Anthony J. Crowley/Avery Fell (Slow Show)
Series: A Little Kindness [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1628107
Comments: 60
Kudos: 172





	Shining

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mia_ugly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mia_ugly/gifts).



> I know you were looking forward to this one, Mia :) Hope it doesn't disappoint :D (Be warned, it made me a bit damp in the eye-region)

The distance from the lobby to the reception room seemed far longer than Avery remembered and he took a shaking breath.

“All right, love?”

He glanced at Tracy, nodded. “Just taking the first small step.”

She smiled at him, threading her arm through his. “One giant leap for Az-kind.”

And with her at his side, it became infinitely easier. Even if it all went pear-shaped, at least she would be there with a bottle of some kind of fizzy plonk to console him afterwards. If. Lord, he only hoped it was a worst-case hypothetical.

He took another, deeper breath. No point lollygagging in the hall. He’d told all the people he needed to except one and all he had to do was walk into that hall and find the right moment to strong-arm the DJ into helping him as he performed the prestige, whipping away the cloth, pulling his heart out of a hat to everyone’s awe and astonishment.

“Shall we?”

Tracy squeezed his arm. “You know me,” she said. “Never say no to some free bubbly.”

Together, they walked into the room and he _heard_ the hum of a few surprised voices, as if they had half-expected never to see her there again. Tracy must’ve heard it to, because she exclaimed and swatted him.

“You silly beggar! You could’ve told me I was going to be the guest star!” She waved grandly. “Yes, for one night only, I’m back. Line up for autographs, pets! No selfies!”

Avery couldn’t help laughing. “This is why I didn’t tell them! I knew you’d be an absolute nightmare.”

She beamed at him and kissed him on the cheek. “Of course. Now, d’you want a gin?”

He shook his head, eyes darting around the room. Spotted – of course – the familiar flash of copper in the shadows. Crowley could be predictable sometimes, and lurking by the bar – alone – at a party celebrating his success was very much his modus operandi.

“You have fun,” he said. “I need to do some mingling.”

Of course, he couldn’t help but notice that as she made a beeline for the bar, she didn’t go to the middle like everyone else, but swooped down on Crowley, bracelets clattering, and all but rugby tackled him off the stool he was perching on.

Poor Crowley’s yelped swearing and flailing arms made his lips twitch helplessly. And, of course, Crowley hugged her back. He always did, when it was Tracy, even let her lean with her arm around him as she waited for her drink. That… he wondered if Tracy knew how precious that was.

How wonderful, Avery thought, that the people he loved both adored each other as well.

He did the rounds, to be polite. Adam’s family always came but also always left early so he caught up with them. He even spotted Beez working their way methodically along the length of the buffet, taking as much advantage of the free food as Tracy did of the bubbly.

Music played, people laughed and smiled, and Avery – shaking to his toes – screwed his courage to the sticking place and hurried over to the DJ’s… table-thing, where he was arranging his music on his laptop and turntables.

“Excuse me.” He hesitated, then waved a hand cautiously in front of the young man’s face.

The DJ lifted his headphones off one ear. “Yeah?”

“I–” Lord. His collar felt tight, his heart fairly rabbiting along. “I was wondering if you might play a request.”

The young man looks offended. “I’ve got a set all lined up.”

“Yes, I’m sure you do and it’s… I’m sure its splendid, but–” Vermillion and black and hidden in shadows when he ought to be in the light, shining for all to see. “Well, I would very much like to surprise my friend with a song, to celebrate the occasion.”

The DJ doesn’t seemed moved. “Uh-huh.”

Avery groped in the pocket of his coat, fishing out a small USB drive and – because isn’t this the way you’re meant to do it? – a twenty pound note. “Please? I’ve saved the song there, if you can use it.”

One side of the young man’s mouth turned up. “Fine,” he said, snatching both the note and the drive “When?”

“After this song?” Avery suggested hopefully. Bite the bullet, finish the trick, whip an old and battered heart out of a threadbare top hat.

“After this song. Right. Okay.” The DJ put his headphones back on, but he was smiling, which Avery took to be a good sign.

Avery hurried back through the throng, weaving his way deftly around the edge of the spotlit dancefloor, making sure to keep himself well out of Crowley’s line of sight. If he looked over, if he met Avery’s eyes, if he did anything before Avery was ready…

But he didn’t, thankfully.

He was still brooding over his drink, leaning against the bar, when the song ended and the very familiar bluegrass strains rang through the room. It had taken Avery _ages_ to find it, but it _had_ to be that song. It couldn’t be anything but. Romantic nonsense, after all. The very best kind.

He darted his tongue along his dry lips, then stepped a little closer.

“Would you like to dance?” he asked. Tada, there it is, out of the hat, held up for everyone to see.

No. not everyone. Not yet.

But the one person who mattered.

Crowley turned as if on castors, lips parting. His eyes darted to the DJ and back, shock, awe, confusion all over his face.

“The thing is.” Avery was shaking so hard he had to pause to take a breath, his hands knotting up in front of him. Steady. Steady, old boy. “The thing is.” Lord, it’s hard to speak when you have a lump in your throat. “I’m rather in – in love with you.”

Crowley’s lovely slanted lips trembled, almost as much as Avery and God, he looked so lost, as if he couldn’t understand the words that were being said to him. As if… as if he hadn’t heard them in eversuch a long time. And oh, he should’ve. He should’ve heard them every day. And he would. Every day if Avery had anything to do with it.

“I’m in love with you,” he repeated more strongly, his eyes burning for all the time wasted and lost and oh, how much he wanted to make up for it. “My darling.”

He took a cautious step closer, as if Crowley might shy away, buckle, bolt, anything that wasn’t staying right where he was, rigid like a deer in the headlights, all wide-eyes and quaking.

“I have love you for so long,” he confided. “So stupidly long. “I love”–waterlogged books and secret chocolates and warm laughter and his favourite foods always there for him and his body like a shield between him and the world that would tear them down– “your kindness, and I love your courage and I’m so, so sorry that I couldn’t be as brave as you from the start.” The words caught, sharp, in his throat. “I’m so sorry that I made you feel–”

“Don’t apologize.” The words cracked from Crowley’s trembling lips. “You haven’t–”

Avery shook his head at once, cutting across him more firmly. “I _have_.” His eyes were swimming so much and he blinked hard, trying to clear them, never daring to look away from Crowley, terrified if he did, he would blink and he’d be gone. “I made you feel like you weren’t enough.” He smiled helplessly, sadly. “But you see – it was me. _I_ wasn’t–”

“Avery–” Crowley’s voice broke and he darted looks about, as if he was worried someone might hear them.

Well, let them.

“But I am now,” Avery said, straightening up, lifting his chin. Calmer. Passing beyond the nervousness into surety. “I am.”

And Crowley stared at him, stared blank and confused and uncomprehending and for a moment, Avery’s resolve teetered back.

“If I’m too late–” He tried to keep smiling, but had a terrible feeling the expression slid off his face. “My dear, I understand.” And he would. It would hurt and it would burn and it would ache, but he knew what it was like. He pulled the smile back, frail, brittle thing that it was, praying that the shimmer in Crowley’s eyes was a good sign and not a fresh, impending heartbreak. Praying that his tremors were an echo of Avery’s own. “I won’t be angry, and I won’t expect anything from you.” He darted his tongue along his lips again. “If I’ve ruined this, if you can never trust me again–”

“They’ll see us,” Crowley protested and Avery almost sobbed there and then. “Everyone will.”

Still trying to protect him and shield him and keep him safe.

And Avery smiled through his tears. How could he not? “I know. You told me you wouldn’t take this choice from me. And you never did. You did everything you could to protect me.”

Crowley’s face twisted into a mask of guilt and grief, as if he blamed himself, as if he had manhandled Avery into it.

“But as it happens,” Avery cut across his thoughts, knowing too well, the dark self-recriminating paths Crowley’s mind could take, “I’m choosing you. If I still can. If you’ll – have me.”

Crowley – bless him – tried to speak. Tried to make some kind of words, but it came out a garbled mess of syllables, and Avery lips trembled in a shaking smile. He needed to know. He needed to be told over and over and over. That this was real. That he deserved this. That he was–

“I love you, Anthony,” he said, quietly. No need for pomp or shouting from the rooftops. Only needed to be heard by one person. “I _love_ you.” Flaming hair curled around his fingers, a hand on his as they drove north, words of comfort whispered in the night. “I have loved you for– for ages and was too stupid and frightened to tell you.”

So close now, but they weren’t suite touching, not yet. A choice not his for the making.

“But,” he promised, his eyes fixed on those beautiful wet honey ones, “I will tell you every day, every hour, if you like. If you let me.” _I love you I love you I love you._ “Would you dance with me?”

And a single world shattered all his fears, tears spilling soundless down his cheeks.

“Yes.”

Avery reached out to him and when Crowley’s hand slipped into his, their fingers threading together, it felt like coming home. Right. Good. Exactly where he wanted to be. Wordlessly, he tugged gently at Crowley’s hands and led him from the shadows into the light, where the light makes him shine like a shooting star.

There were people around, of course. He knew there would be, but right now – in this moment – they could be the only people in the world. He couldn’t look away, forgot even how one _does_ dance, so caught up in the sheer beauty that is Crowley’s expression. He faltered, wondering if there was a preferred way for two men – then realised he didn’t care and it _didn’t matter_.

He just stepped close, slipping his hand around Crowley’s waist and pulled him closer, closer until their heartbeats were drumming against one another, and he shivered in shocked and joyous relief as their foreheads kissed and they just… held each other.

Simple as that, two people who loved each other, swaying to some romantic nonsense, and shining like the sun.


End file.
